The police should not be above scrutiny, Zack Polanski has said amid the controversy over a post he shared about the Golders Green officers.
The Green Party leader also hit out at Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley – who wrote an open letter criticising the politician over the repost – saying the commissioner’s move was not “an appropriate way to do politics”.
Mr Polanski retweeted an X post which accused officers of violently kicking the stabbing suspect in the north-west London attack in the head after he had already been incapacitated.
He has faced criticism from within his own ranks, as well as from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer who branded him “disgraceful” and “not fit to lead any political party”.
Mr Polanski told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “I think you can both recognise the bravery of officers who run towards incidents that most of us, including myself, would certainly want to run away from, and find the appropriate forum to say that no one, especially the police, should be above scrutiny.
“The reason why I’ve apologised is I accept that wasn’t the appropriate forum.
“Open letters aren’t an appropriate way to do politics either in a local election,” he said of Sir Mark’s letter, “but I accept all of that, and I’ll be having that conversation with the commissioner”.
Cabinet minister Heidi Alexander said on Sunday that she could see herself kicking the suspect in the attack if she was a police officer.
The Transport Secretary told Times Radio: “I thought that if I was in the shoes of that police officer then if I’m honest, given the situation and the fact that he had a backpack on his back and they were worried about whether that might go off, I could if I was a police officer, frankly, I could see myself having taken similar action.”
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Polanski has “taken up where Jeremy Corbyn left off”.
Speaking to the Times, he said: “He’s taken all those Corbynista votes and policies.
“You saw his appalling response (to the Golders Green terrorist attack), attacking the police rather than having solidarity with the Jewish community.
“I don’t think the Greens are true to British values.”
The original post on X had accused the officers of “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head” when he was already incapacitated from being tasered.
Alleged attacker Essa Suleiman, 45, is accused of trying to kill Shloime Rand, 34, and Norman Shine, 76, during a knife rampage through the streets of the north London suburb.
He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning and was remanded in custody.
Mr Polanski was also drawn into the debate around chanting “globalise the intifada” at demonstrations, and said he discourages the use of the phrase but that he is “not interested” in policing language.
It comes after the Prime Minister said protesters have a responsibility to call out chants of the words at Gaza marches.
The Green Party leader told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that it is not a phrase he would personally use.
He added: “Words matter, but the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered, the people in Lebanon who have been killed, these people matter too, and I think if people want to protest, that it’s important we defend their right to protest.
“Yes I do discourage, to give you a more direct answer, the use of the phrase but I’m not interested in trying to police people’s language.”
He also hit out at the Times over a caricature of him in the paper.
His party has complained to the editor of the newspaper, saying the cartoon depicted Mr Polanski using the antisemitic trope of a “visibly hooked nose”.
The politician told Laura Kuenssberg: “Jewish communities aren’t safe, and this isn’t an abstract idea for me as a Jewish person.
“In fact, in the last six weeks alone two people have actually been arrested in relation to antisemitic actions towards me and just yesterday the Times newspaper published a pretty vile antisemitic caricature of me and have yet to apologise or withdraw that.”
The Times has been contacted for comment.
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